Saturday, 6 June 2015

Wilf, the BIRDHOUSE Man

Wilf is a retired construction engineer but that doesn’t mean he has stopped designing or constructing. Now, in his spare time, he builds birdhouses.

I met Wilf purely by chance one day, while going for a walk through a bird park. It’s something I love doing whenever time allows. I would often look up and notice a birdhouse hanging way up high in the trees, but not just any bird house. A birdhouse, you can tell, that was built with love and attention.

Well, on my usual walk through the bird park this day, I noticed a ground squirrel scampering through the woods and I became ecstatic because I’ve never seen one up close. Sure I’ve seen many squirrels, but not a ground one, and just as I got closer to get a better look, the squirrel took off. I was disappointed to say the least but out of the corner of my eyes I could see an elderly gentleman approaching with something in his hands. His name is Wilf…

Wilf was a friendly guy and we began talking immediately. He had peanuts in his hands that he has been leaving for the ground squirrels for the past 25+ years. Then I started talking to him about the unique birdhouses I keep seeing up in the trees.

He smiled and told me they were his. I said, “What do you mean they are yours?” He replied he was the one who built and put them up there. I replied, “You? You are the one that built these wonderful birdhouses? How did you get them up there so high?” Wilf smiled again at me and pointed to some more birdhouses he made.

He never really did reveal his secret. Something about putting some weight on the end of a rope. I guess some secrets are meant to be just that! Anyways, he offered to show me more birdhouses he had made, which happened to be less than 5 mins away!

When we arrived at his home, it was like whoa! Just one look around his front yard you could tell Wilf had a creative side that was charming with a sense of humour.

I told him I could use a sign like this:

He couldn’t wait to take us around to show us all his creations and told us about this bear he made and how somebody put a picture of it on “some site called Facebook”. Cute, I thought. To both the bear and that remark.

“Everything you see around here, I made,” Will said pointing to a well, as he took me for a small tour around the house...

Even this light post fixture near the entrance of his driveway:

He also constructed this contraption that collects rainwater from the eaves through:

Video:

But what I was most interested in and couldn’t wait to see were the many birdhouses he built. They were mostly all along the fence as well as ON the fence and they were beautiful!

Most of the birdhouses looked like mini log cabins. I just had to get one!

Wilf said he could make about two of them in a day!

I couldn’t decide on which one to buy but in the end I bought one that I thought would be perfect for the backyard. I thanked Wilf for his wonderful tour and started to head back. As I went through the usual path, I couldn’t help but notice the birdhouses along the way.